


Brother, Please

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel In Trouble, Gabriel Hurts Cas, Gabriel Is Unstable, Gen, Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), Hurt Gabriel (Supernatural), Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Protective Sam Winchester, Restrained Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 11:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20693156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Cas stays behind in the bunker to care for Gabriel after his rescue from Asmodeus.But Gabriel is more damaged than any of them suspect, and all he wants is to be left alone.





	Brother, Please

**Author's Note:**

> It is very minor, but there is reference in this story to Gabriel not being the best of parental figures to Cas when his little brother was a fledgling and Gabriel just wanted him out of his hair for a bit. There are no real details given, but just in case anyone might find it upsetting.

“You sure about this?” Sam shouldered his duffle, stuffed his phone in his pocket. “He’s still...off.”

Castiel glanced back down the hall to the room where they’d left Gabriel, sitting hunched in on himself on the bed, eyes fixed on the wall.

He wished he could say he didn’t share Sam’s wariness of his brother, but he would have been lying.

“I can handle him.”

Sam didn’t look happy about it. “Cas.”

“You’ve got a hunt,” Cas said. Upstairs, Dean laid his hand on the horn, and Sam grimaced. They both understood: down here, Dean had hit a brick wall he couldn’t just punch his way through. They needed Gabriel and he was somewhere neither Winchester could reach.

And Dean...Dean never did well when his wheels were spinning and he couldn’t get traction.

Sam patted the pocket where he’d put his phone. “Any problem, you call, okay? We’ll head back right away, but, Cas….”. He put his hand on Cas’s shoulder. “If you have to, just get out, okay?”

Cas nodded, but Gabriel was his brother. He deserved Cas’s trust, and his time and care, and both might be easier if they had the bunker to themselves.

“We’ll be fine,” he assured Sam, and walked him to the door before heading back down to his wounded sibling.

++

See, the problem, Gabriel knew, was that Cas had persistence. He didn’t know how to stop, his little head working at a problem until he found a way to fix it.

He’d never changed, and Gabriel wasn’t ready to have Cas worrying away at the situation.

At him. To break through the wall Gabriel was building between now, and...

How to stop him, though, that was the thing.

He didn’t want to hurt his brother.

He just needed to put him on time out, and he’d done that before.

Not so long ago, either, and as he searched the room, looking for something, anything, not knowing what, his hand closed on something in one of the drawers.

Gabriel picked up the roll of duct tape, and grinned.

He didn’t believe in fate, but even so…

He was capable of taking a hint. 

++

Maybe it was nothing, or maybe it wasn’t, but the town sheriff was certainly acting hinky, and Sam watched him look around before unlocking the door to the derelict bar and going inside.

He and Dean sat up, and Dean grabbed his laptop from the back, starting pulling up details on the bar, who’d owned it, and how long it had lain empty.

Sam grabbed his phone, kept one eye on the bar as he dialled Cas’s number.

Dean glanced at him. “You’re turning into a mad angel stalker, you know that?”

Sam huffed at him. “Like you’re not worried.”

“I’m not.”

“Sure.”

“Cas has this.”

“Cas isn’t answering his phone.”

“Cas is probably too busy looking after his shell shocked big brother to chit chat. He’s got his hands full, Sam. Gabriel...He’s _broken_ like that demon fast food king picked him up and smashed him on the damn floor. He might be an archangel, but he’s still not gonna bounce back from that.”

Sam let the phone ring out. He knew how bad Gabriel was; he was the one who’d unpicked the stitches from Gabriel’s lips, so Cas wouldn’t have to, had tried talking to Gabriel because, and it was fucked up, but after Cas…. 

Sam figured he was the next closest thing Gabriel had to...anybody.

And Cas was their brother, and Sam just wanted to know Cas was okay.

Because he had a feeling something was wrong.

_Cas_, he prayed. _I know you’ve got your hands full, but just...let me know you’re okay, okay_?

He let the phone ring out a few more times, and then Dean cut it off and pointed out the window.

The sheriff was coming back out, and he had a trash bag in one hand, swollen and heavy, and even from there they could see it was dripping.

“Head in the game,” Dean said. “Cas’ll be fine.”

Sam put his phone away, and fastened his seat belt as Dean started the car.

And hoped his brother was right.

++

Cas had fought, though it hadn’t done any good.

Gabriel had been standing behind the door when he came in, and it had gone very quickly then.

A single back handed blow that had knocked him onto the bed, stunned him long enough for Gabriel to pin him and then he had faded out under the sheer weight of his brother’s Grace.

By the time he’d recovered from that, he was naked, and Gabriel was adhering strip after strip of tape to his skin, muttering something that meant all Cas’s struggles were weak and ineffectual.

And throughout it all, Cas heard his phone ringing, then chirping to signal a missed call, a text, and then ringing again.

And he heard Sam’s prayers, a desperate request just to know he was okay.

“Brother,” Cas said, as Gabriel tore off another strip of tape. “Please.”

Gabriel shushed him and fastened the tape across his lips, smoothed it down.

“Better. Better. It’s okay, little fledgling, it’s okay. You used to need this, sometime, just couldn’t shut down, always with that busy little head, until I took you out of it, and you haven’t changed, have you, Castiel?” 

Cas wriggled, tried to sit up, to get Gabriel off him, and when that failed, he reached out the only other way he could, now that his brother had locked his Grace away.

He turned his cheek, pressed it into Gabiel’s hand.

“Oh, Cassie. It’s okay, little brother. I’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. You just need a time out.”

He climbed off Cas, off the bed, and went to the door.

Cas screamed his brother’s name through the gag, but Gabriel just smiled reassuringly back at him.

And then he left, turning off the light, and pulling closed the door.


End file.
